Saucecode Hackathon: Wevote to mobilise for 2019 Elections

A group of young Nigerians has built a citizens mobilization platform for the 2019 elections, simply known as WeVote. In doing so, they emerged overall winner during the grand finale of Saucecode, a Hackathon that was launched by Findworka in 2017.

Wevote is made up of Ignatius Ukwoma, Nnenanya Obinna Kingsley, Silm Month and Victor Enogwe. They explained the rationale behind the team’s decision to build the platform.

According to the team lead Ignatius Ukwoma: “We believe that “a better Nigeria” can be brought about by good leaders. However, election statistics show that less than 25% of Nigerians voted in the last general elections and the outcome of an election is determined by those who show up. So, we identified two causes of low voter turnout – some citizens did not vote ready while some others have lost faith in the electoral process.” Also speaking about the technology that was used, the team also said: “WeVote was built using Javascript – NodeJS on the backend and React on the frontend”.

Here are some interesting features of the app:
1. Voter Readiness Index (VRI): Users can check how ready they are to vote in the upcoming elections.
2. Personalised Updates: Users receive personalised notifications depending on their VRI (voters’ readiness index) to ensure that they vote.
3. Political News and Information: Users get access to the latest INEC news and other important information, like the candidates competing in each election.

The launch of the maiden edition of the Saucecode Hackathon started with a call for entries last year. After the call for registration and team formation was announced on various news platforms, over three hundred developers, designers and project managers registered and over a hundred teams were formed. After the first round of elimination, 20 teams made it to the quarterfinals. Out of the 20 teams, the public voted, with results showing real-time on the Saucecode leaderboard, and 10 teams qualified to the semi-finals. 6 teams progressed to the finals, namely Wevote, Boothcallers, Codesauce, Fire, Fuerza, and Pistis.

At the grand finale, the jury was made up of Femi Taiwo, Nkemdilim Begho, Oluseun Onigbinde and Tunji Elesho. Judging was based on five criteria: Uniqueness/approach to a solution, Creativity, User Experience, Scalability and Impact of product/solution, and the technology used. The teams pitched for three minutes, showed their demos in three and did a Q & A for the final three minutes of their pitch.

According to Dele Bakare, the founder of Findworka and initiator of the hackathon: “The idea is simple but compelling- Saucecode is a project aimed at discovering and celebrating the finest technical talents in Africa. It was conceived to challenge the talents in our ecosystem, encourage programming best practice, promote collaboration, make new role models out of the very best and put Africa on the global IT map again.”